TY  - JOUR
AU  - Soest,Arthur van
AU  - Hurd,Michael
TI  - A Test for Anchoring and Yea-Saying in Experimental Consumption Data
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10462
PY  - 2004
Y2  - May 2004
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10462
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10462.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Arthur van Soest
Tilburg University
P.O. Box 90153
5000 LE Tilburg
The Netherlands
E-Mail: avas@uvt.nl

Michael D. Hurd
RAND Corporation
1776 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90407
Tel: 310/451-6945
Fax: 310/451-6923
E-Mail: mhurd@rand.org
AB  - In the experimental module of the AHEAD 1995 data, the sample is randomly split into respondents who get an open-ended question on the amount of total family consumption - with follow-up unfolding brackets (of the form: is consumption $X or more?) for those who answer  don't know' or  refuse' - and respondents who are immediately directed to unfolding brackets. In both cases, the entry point of the unfolding bracket sequence is randomized. These data are used to develop a nonparametric test for whether people make mistakes in answering the first bracket question, allowing for any type of selection into answering the open-ended question or not. Two well-known types of mistakes are considered: anchoring and yea-saying (or acquiescence). While the literature provides ample evidence that the entry point in the first bracket question serves as an anchor for follow-up bracket questions, it is less clear whether the answers to the first bracket question are already affected by anchoring. We reject the joint hypothesis of no anchoring and no yea-saying at the entry point. Once yea-saying is taken into account
ER  -